


A New Era

by alba17



Category: The Following
Genre: Episode Tag, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-19
Updated: 2013-03-19
Packaged: 2017-12-05 19:52:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/727281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alba17/pseuds/alba17
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Joe meets his followers. Episode tag for Welcome Home (1.08).</p>
            </blockquote>





	A New Era

**Author's Note:**

> For the word of the day prompt, _lucid_ , at 1_million_words.

Emma led Joe down the stairs on the first morning of the new era, pale, early light streaming through the window. He was preoccupied by thoughts of Joey as he and Emma rounded the landing. The boy--his _son_ \--would come around eventually, especially once his mother arrived and Joe’s plans could move forward. 

Emma stopped and looked at him, intelligence clicking away behind those wide eyes, before turning her attention to the floor below. Joe followed her gaze.

He sensed them before he saw them, their scents and sounds highlighted in the quiet morning. Joe had been a prisoner for a long time, his followers separated from him by bulletproof glass, untouchable, not quite real; others just voices on the phone. Now a veritable crowd of people looked up, their attention focused solely on him. A stark contrast to his barren concrete cell, the presence of this large group in a small space crested over him in a wave of sensation. He could perceive the twitch of a hand, the shuffling of feet, even though they appeared to be standing still, and the cumulative effect was strangely intense. A mass of people, waiting...for him. His chest tightened with emotion. 

Their anxiety, their hopes and longings rose in the air and mingled with his heightened sensations, making a whole greater than its parts. Here it was, shimmering within his grasp, an almost tangible thing: a single organism bent to his will, but with the flexibility of diverse elements, like tentacles, reaching into the most unexpected places. He floated on it for a moment, mindless yet hyper-aware, until Emma brought him back into the present.

Slowly he looked into their eyes, one by one, until he knew for certain they were all with him. He’d never felt so clear in his life, so confident of the outcome. 

This was going to be even better than he’d hoped. The world would never forget the name of Joe Carroll now.


End file.
